pellesvspullsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pelles” and “pulls” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,073
“pelles” frequency rank
#22,050
“pulls” frequency rank
51123
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pelles pulls
Definition Pluriel de pelle. Pluriel de pull.

Where the eye mixes pelles and pulls

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pelles
5 ch
pulls

Visual trap between pelles and pulls

A purely visual mix-up. pelles (\pɛl\) and pulls (\pyl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pelles is recorded at frequency rank #29,073, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛl\. pulls is at rank #22,050, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pyl\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 51123, this pair ranks #157,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pelles vs pulls

Shared letters: lps. Private to "pelles": e. Private to "pulls": u.

"pelles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pulls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pelleseplles · pelels · peles · pelless · pellse · pleles · ppelles
  • pullspluls · ppulls · pullss · pulsl · uplls

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pelles" and "pulls" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛl\ versus \pyl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pelles" or "pulls"?
"pulls" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,050 in our French list, against #29,073 for "pelles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pelles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pulls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #157,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pelles" and "pulls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pelles vs pillée". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #157,410 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list